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Westminster insiders “do not get a licence to lie”, said Andy Burnham on Thursday, in an angry swipe at the political briefing culture in the House of Commons.
After a week of political antagonism over the Labour party’s national executive committee’s decision to block Burnham from standing in the Gorton and Denton byelection next month, the Manchester mayor said he would call out liars in Westminster in the aftermath of the dispute.
During a phone-in with BBC Radio Manchester, Burnham said since his time in government he had witnessed people who “just think they can say what they like” to the media. “They do it to denigrate the character, impugn the integrity of elected politicians,” he said.
The fallout of Starmer and the NEC’s decision to block Burnham has continued to reverberate this week.
On Tuesday Burnham accused Downing Street sources of lying, after an unnamed Starmer ally briefed that he had been told “in no uncertain terms” that any request to the NEC committee to put his name forward for the byelection would be refused. A No 10 spokesperson denied that anyone close to Starmer had told Burnham the NEC would refuse his application.
Burnham also used the example of the “stop Wes” briefings, an intervention by unnamed Downing Street sources which warned the health secretary, Wes Streeting, and others not to launch any attempt to oust the prime minister. ”Some of these people are paid by the public purse, but in my view, anybody paid by the public purse does not get licence to lie.”
He added: “In the aftermath of all of this, I’m not going to be bitter, and I’m going to be out there campaigning in the byelection, but I am going to call that one thing out.”
Burnham said he wanted to “give great credit” to Starmer for backing the Hillsborough law that he brought to parliament, which will require a “duty of candour” on public servants. But he indicated that the prime minister had taken a decision not to speak to him ahead of his decision to apply to run for a Manchester seat despite Burnham’s request, although the pair had a conversation on Monday.
“I want this to be known as well: I spoke to senior people in the party, including the home secretary. We had a really great conversation,” he said. “And I did ask to speak to the prime minister, because I wanted to assure him of something I put in the letter that supported my application, and it was that I wasn’t coming in to undermine him or the government.
The Manchester mayor said it was never his intention to undercut the prime minister’s authority. “I was coming in to see if I could contribute, because some of the things I know are holding Greater Manchester back are problems at that level,” he said.
Asked for his thoughts on a conversation he and Starmer had on Monday, Burnham said: “It was a fair exchange, but we both said how we felt, and I was glad to have that conversation and a chance to say how I felt.
“I would have preferred, obviously, to speak in advance to the decision to assure him of what I was trying to do. As I say, I think it could have created a more positive path for everybody, including the prime minister, including the government.”
